US calls for China to execute some of its illegal fentanyl suppliers

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has “strongly encouraged” China to execute some of its criminals who make and distribute chemicals used to produce illegal fentanyl, the White House has revealed.Concerns about illicit fentanyl supplies flowing from China to the US loomed over President Trump’s high-stakes summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during their three-day DC summit last week.Beijing has already answered some of those concerns by taking steps to crack down on illegal distribution of the deadly synthetic drug’s precursor chemicals, which have resulted in hundreds of thousands of American deaths over recent years, the Trump administration said.“In August 2026, acting on information from U.S.law enforcement, China arrested 21 Chinese citizens for the manufacture and distribution of precursor chemicals to illicit drug producers in North America,” said a White House release on part of last week’s summit.“The United States strongly encouraged maximum sentences, including the death penalty where applicable.”Beijing made several other overtures to the US involving the countries’ war on drugs, too.

It imposed new export controls on two precursor chemicals that are shipped to producers in North America and classified orphines — synthetic opioids that can be 10 times more potent than fentanyl — as deadly drugs, the White House said.Fentanyl is legal in the US but only under strict medical guidance when used as a treatment for severe or chronic pain.Ahead of Xi’s visit, China rolled out tougher guidelines on fentanyl-related substances, too, vowing to ramp up investigations into the illegal distribution of those chemicalsFentanyl overdose deaths peaked in the US in 2022 to date, with the drug killing nearly 74,000 Americans in a single year.Recent data indicate that the number of related deaths has since dropped dramatically, with opioid-related overdose deaths plunging to 44,564 in 2025, according to the Centers for Disease Control a...